Covid-19 is now more an economic rather than health battle
Tengku Zafrul must feel honoured because he has proven dangerous to the opposition effort to spread the “Kerajaan Gagal” propaganda. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, said President Bush. And thus far Malaysia’s economy has not collapsed, as the critics are saying. And this is why Tengku Zafrul is a target for character assassination.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
For more than a year since March 2020 Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah a.k.a. Yew Ming Seong has been hogging the limelight — and he has actually become a sort of hero figure in the frontline battle against the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
But the Covid-19 coronavirus is not that easily defeated. Every time humans come out with some form of anti-virus organism, the coronavirus transforms and adapts and defeats the anti-virus.
I find that true in the normal winter flu as well. I have to keep taking flu shots every November because every year the flu virus reinvents itself and even after taking the shots I still get flu a couple of months later due to the new strain that makes my flu shot ineffective.
Dr Noor Hisham has been the icon in the battle against Covid-19 since early 2020
To cut a long story short, we will never be able to defeat Covid-19 and the 100% herd immunity will never be achieved. So the medical fight against the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic will be mainly in trying to keep the figures down as much as possible.
But that will be more or less the same losing battle that the police are having against traffic accidents. You can fine people, take them to court, ban them from driving, but there are still going to be 500,000 traffic accidents a year on Malaysian roads with 7,000 or more deaths.
Yes, more people get involved in traffic accidents and die on Malaysians roads in a year than those who get infected and die from Covid-19. And Covid has been around since the last days of the Pakatan Harapan government while those who crash and die on Malaysian roads has been going on since Merdeka.
In short, the Covid-19 coronavirus can never do as much damage as Malaysian drivers can at wreaking havoc on Malaysia’s economy and destroying the lives of Malaysians.
It is now Tengku Zafrul’s turn in the battle against Covid-19 and the negative impact it is having on the economic life of Malaysians
Anyway, what Dr Noor Hisham can do to save the lives of Malaysians has more or less reached the limit. The rest would now be up to Malaysians themselves. If Malaysians still want to drive recklessly and crash their cars and bikes, or live dangerously and expose themselves to Covid-19, there is very little that can be done.
The more important fight now is the economy and to ensure that while Dr Noor Hisham tries to convince Malaysians to not commit suicide, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz has to make sure that Malaysia’s economy remains robust so that it is still worth living.
The fight boils down to saving lives and saving livelihoods. While Dr Noor Hisham’s job has more or less come to an end, Tengku Zafrul’s job has just started. Tengku Zafrul has to ensure that there is life after Covid.
All over the world there are concerns being expressed about the post-Covid-19 impact to the economy.
Covid-19 is not only a global pandemic and public health crisis; it has also severely affected the global economy and financial markets. Significant reductions in income, a rise in unemployment, and disruptions in the transportation, service, and manufacturing industries are among the consequences of the disease mitigation measures that have been implemented in many countries.
It has become clear that most governments in the world underestimated the risks of rapid COVID-19 spread and were mostly reactive in their crisis response. As disease outbreaks are not likely to disappear in the near future, proactive international actions are required to not only save lives but also protect economic prosperity. (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00241/full)
COVID-19: How does it end—and where does it leave us?
Case numbers are resurging in parts of the world where the COVID-19 pandemic was waning, falling in places that saw huge surges recently, and just beginning to rise in previously little-impacted parts of the globe. Trying to determine the end of a story while the plot is still twisting is difficult. But this week, McKinsey sought answers to the burning questions of how the pandemic can finally be vanquished and how vaccines can reach the world, as well as what companies can do to mitigate new geopolitical risks and cope with inflation and volatility. (https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/covid-19-implications-for-business)
Yes, everyone is seeking answers to the burning question of what is going to happen to our economy after the dust settles. More importantly, the dust may never settle, so we need to try to recover amidst the dust.
Hence what we need is not just a finance minister but a genius of a magician’s qualities. Defeating Covid-19, though extremely difficult, is still not as difficult as defeating the economic fallout because of it. And this is where Tengku Zafrul needs to show what stuff he is made of.
The anti-government folks are worried that Tengku Zafrul may prove formidable after all. That is why they are trying to undermine him with fake news in the hope of destroying his credibility.
Tengku Zafrul must feel honoured because he has proven dangerous to the opposition effort to spread the “Kerajaan Gagal” propaganda. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, said President Bush. And thus far Malaysia’s economy has not collapsed, as the critics are saying. And this is why Tengku Zafrul is a target for character assassination.
THE FAKE NEWS REGARDING TENGKU ZAFRUL
